President Obama warned us about higher electricity prices and stated his goal of bankrupting the coal industry under his cap and trade plan in this youtube video.
We get most of our electricity from coal. Nothing exist to replace coal except nuclear power, but we can't use that because it is bad for mother nature. Charles Krauthammer made the point that if there were some new great technology the market would have brought it about. The government can not just mandate some new technology to be made. If it could, we would be living in the Star Trek age--we could exploring space and battling aliens by flying around in cool space ships. Windmills have been around for a couple of hundred years now and have been used in producing electricity for some time.(I added the part about Star Trek) If it was such a good thing, then why hasn't the free market brought it about? The government will be taking capital out of the private sector and propping up some unproductive technology.
The CEO of some major oil company said that this bill will cause oil production to be cut here in America and cause us to import more oil from foreign nations. I thought this bill was supposed to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. A big effect of this bill is to "spread the wealth around" the world. It is a major transfer of wealth from rich countries to poor countries. This is an interesting and important point regardless if it is a bad thing or not.
Obama is telling us the future effects of his bill. Al Franken the senate seat so there is a possibility of this passing. This could help you out in investing or planning ahead in you life.
James Madison, the speech delivered in 1788 in favor of the federal constitution, said: "Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgments of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent or sudden usurpation." So gradually, most people won't know or care.
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James Madison's quote nails it.
ReplyDeleteWorking in the electric utility industry as I so, I can comment on your windmill statements first-hand: Our utility either building ourselves, or connecting other existing windmills by the thousands. I would say over half my job is spent working on these interconnections. Not-one-single-windmill is cost-justified on its own merits. The only reason they make sense is the tax-breaks and grants from the government. IE, they are installed partially through the taxpayers' pockets, and also partially through those that buy electricity from us. And even though there are thousands of wind turbines out there generating, they only amount to about 1% of our total power generation, which, as you point out, is about 80% coal. The whole state of Wyoming would have to be entirely covered in windmills to match the generating power of our Wyoming coal plants.
ReplyDeleteThe several times I drove out to California, I passed all the wind mills in Texas and around LA on I-10 and I noticed a lot of them weren't turning. Nothing exists as of now to replace conventional sources of energy. Nuclear is a good alternative, but we are not allowed to use it. We have more oil than the Middle East and we can't use it. We are supposed to use windmills which don't produce enough electricity. Where are we to get our energy needs? We aren't. We are supposed to go without energy and revert back to the primitive lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteThe government is propping up an inefficient energy source. This means that more resources and capital needs to go into producing the same amount of electricity. This means that there is less capital to go elsewhere. This puts a drain on the economy.
Hah! ToeJamm's quote nails it as well as James Madison's!: "We will never be able to understand the liberals willingness to be pathetic."
ReplyDeleteThey truly revel in it. And go home knowing a grown up will take care of any problems that may arise.